Website development and web standards in the ubiquitous world: Where are we going?

摘要

A website is actually the first indispensable tool for information dissemination, but its development embraces various aspects: the choice of Content Management System (CMS) to implement production and the publishing process, the provision of relationships and interconnections with social networks and public web services, and the reuse of information from other sources. Meanwhile, the context where web content is displayed has dramatically changed with the advent of mobile devices that are very different in terms of size and features, which have led to a ubiquitous world made of mobile Internet-connected devices. Users' behavior on mobile web devices means that developers need new strategies for web design. The paper analyzes technologies, methods, and solutions that should be adopted to provide a good user experience regardless of the devices used to visualize the content in its various forms (i.e., web pages, web applications, widgets, social applications, and so on), assuring that open standards are adhered to, and thus providing wider accessibility to users. The strategies for website development cover responsive technology vs. mobile apps, the interconnection with social networks and web services in the Google world, the adoption of embedded data techniques based on specifications (i.e., RDFa, microformats and, microdata), and specific vocabularies (i.e., schema.org).